Decommissioning begins of Redcar's Corus steel plant

The process of decommissioning the Corus steel plant on Teesside began in earnest yesterday; a mighty blast furnace is put to sleep or mothballed as more than 150 years of steelmaking in the area ended on Friday when the giant Redcar blast furnace was shut down.

The move will mean the loss of at least 1,600 jobs, with unions preparing to take industrial action.

Decommissioning is likely to take about six months, with any potential buyer expected to have to spend up to £50m to restart the furnace.

The Socialist Way could not allow this to pass without comment, given our connection to the steel making industry. We know the Redcar plant will never see a reawakening with a fairytale happy ending, this sadly is the end. We wish the former steelworkers of Redcar all the best of luck as they are flung onto the scrapheap, whilst Brown and Mandy talk crap, up to 8,000 jobs will be lost in the wider community as a result of the mothballing.

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